Providence Diocese Will Not Release Names of all Accused Priests

Providence Catholic Bishop Thomas Tobin says he will not release the names of all of the priests who have been investigated for child sex abuse. Tobin was responding to a call from the group Bishopaccountability.org for greater transparency.

The Providence Diocese has admitted in court documents to investigating 125 priests but has released the names of only 34. Tobin says he sees no point in releasing the entire list. "Sometimes even when names have been released people will still accuse the local diocese of laundering the names or not being forthcoming. When Cardinal O’Malley released a lot of the names in Boston even then some of the victims groups said he hadn’t done enough so I’m not sure that we can do everything that some of these advocacy groups want us to do to satisfy them."

Tobin says there have been no cases of credibly accused priests in Rhode Island in at least seven years. Most of the cases go back decades.

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